The present invention pertains to firearm designs, and particularly bolt action assemblies and related firing control systems for manual bolt action firearms.
A “bolt action” is a type of firearm system and action in which the firearm's bolt is operated manually to open and close the breech end of the barrel. The bolt is typically operated with a small handle, most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm. As the handle is operated, the bolt is rotated and unlocked, the breech is opened, and a spent shell casing may be withdrawn and ejected. Typically, the firing pin is then cocked (this may alternatively happen on closing of the bolt, depending on design), and finally a new round/shell/cartridge may be introduced into the breech and the bolt closed. Bolt action firearms are most often “long” barrel rifles, but there are some bolt-action shotguns and a few handguns as well.
In most conventional bolt action firearms, a firing pin is located within the bolt and its sudden forward projection through a front face of the bolt (while engaged with a cartridge) fires a cartridge. Many different fire control systems and devices have been developed to control the release or activation of the firing pin. Due to the necessary relative placements of the bolt, magazine and trigger, the fire control system typically engages and controls the firing pin at a point near the rear of both the bolt and the firing pin. In firearms having magazines for introducing multiple consecutive cartridges into the breech, the position of the magazine—behind the barrel opening and forward of the trigger—makes it most convenient and practical to engage the firing pin at a point behind the magazine.
For various reasons including the desire for a shorter overall configuration, the “bullpup” firearm configuration has been developed. In the bullpup configuration, the firearm action, and the breech and magazine, is located behind the trigger. In a bolt action bullpup configuration firearm, the fire control system is complicated by the spatial separation of the trigger from the bolt, and the intervening magazine and cartridge path. This geometry has prevented development of well controlled fire control mechanisms in the past. What is desired is a fire control system that provides fine controlled firing operation in a bullpup design.